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The Rape of the Lock

Alexander Pope

Book Overview: 

The Rape of the Lock is a mock-heroic narrative poem written by Alexander Pope. The poem satirizes a petty squabble by comparing it to the epic world of the gods.

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Book Excerpt: 
. . .Th' advent'rous Baron the bright locks admir'd;
He saw, he wish'd, and to the prize aspir'd.
Resolv'd to win, he meditates the way,
By force to ravish, or by fraud betray;
For when success a Lover's toil attends,
Few ask, if fraud or force attain'd his ends.

For this, ere Phœbus rose, he had implor'd
Propitious heav'n, and ev'ry pow'r ador'd,
But chiefly Love — to Love an Altar built,
Of twelve vast French Romances, neatly gilt.
There lay three garters, half a pair of gloves;
And all the trophies of his former loves;
With tender Billet-doux he lights the pyre,
And breathes three am'rous sighs to raise the fire.
Then prostrate falls, and begs with ardent eyes
Soon to obtain, and long possess the prize:
The pow'rs gave ear, and granted half his pray'r,
The rest, the winds dispers'd in empty air.

But now secure the painted vessel glides,
The sun-beams trembling on the. . . Read More

Community Reviews

The Rape of the Lock was an amazing poem, unfortunately the rest of the poems were a bit too lengthy for my liking, wherein it missed some integral components in terms of cadence.

I like Pope.

Sharp response to critics, on the nature of man, energetic writing but with typical rhyme scheme and formatting. Rape of the Lock is a fantastical story of a girl whose lock if hair is cut off and stolen by some men.
Quote of "to err is human, to forgive, divine."

Amusing mock heroic

Entertainingly and provides insights to the early Georgian aristocrats. It’s not too hard to understand if you have a basic knowledge of classical themes.

oh, my satire class. it may have been painful, but you can't deny the genius of pope's work.

True wit is nature to advantage dressed,
What oft was thought, but ne’er so well expressed.

Alexander Pope represents an ideal of poetry which the Romantic age almost annihilated: epigrammatic, metrical, rhyming, satirical, and unemotional. He is from the Augustan age of classical taste. This make

I only read The Rape of the Lock and loved how it was a great mix of wit and beautiful prose.

Compared to the Nineteenth Century's Romantic movement and the Seventeenth's Shakespeare and Milton, the Eighteenth has always felt a veritable void to me. There was a little bit going on in France with Diderot and Voltaire, and some minor British works by Swift and Defoe, but by and large, Eighteen

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